A Black unarmed security guard wrestled a man with an AR-15 in the lobby of a substance abuse treatment clinic in Buffalo, NY, and the incident was recorded by surveillance cameras, CBS affiliate WIVB reported.
On Thursday morning, 48-year-old Jeremy Griffin of Williamsville, NY, walked into Alba de Vida and fired one shot into a wall before the guard tackled him against another wall, forced him outside, and restrained him with the assistance of another guard.
A video clip, released by the Buffalo Police Department, shows the guard standing opposite a reception desk and in front of a closed glass door that may have lead to a patients’ waiting area. He noticed the gunman approaching the front entrance before the staff did.
When Griffin fired the shot, the guard seemingly alerted the staff behind the front desk, as they frantically disappeared into the clinic for safety. Then he rushed toward Griffin, tackling the gunman, as another guard arrived just before the surveillance footage ends.
At least two more rounds were fired during the struggle, police said, according to NPR. More video footage from outside the clinic showed two bystanders helping to disarm Griffin. Erie County District Attorney John Flynn
confirmed that no one was injured.“This could’ve gotten ugly really quick,” Flynn said, WIVB reported.
“Due to the quick action — quite frankly heroic in my opinion — by the two security officers, no one got hurt there.”
Griffin has been charged with multiple felonies, including attempted murder. According to local officials, they suspect that Griffin was involved in another shooting at a home on Pennsylvania Street where he allegedly shot a woman in the leg before going to the clinic.
“[Both shootings] were an attempted robbery seeking what we believe to be drugs,” Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said in a press conference, per NPR. “There was, at this point, no other motive other than an attempted robbery.”